It is well known that in many applications, various products are sold in bulk form to the consuming public, and in most typical applications, the product is contained within bins or the like, thereby permitting the consumer to purchase any desired quantity of the product from the bulk container. This has become especially prevalent in the food industry since many food products are now sold in bulk form in order to permit the consumer to purchase any desired amount or poundage of the product by withdrawing that amount of product from a container, and placing the desired amount of product in an individualized container such as a bag or the like. The other advantage that this system of distribution achieves is that an enterprise is permitted the option of eliminating the necessity for clerks or additional personnel to attend to the matter of weighing out metered amounts of product based upon the consumer's request order. Hence, rather than food products being packaged in individual packages and sealed with heat shrinkable material, or other such individual packages as is typical for fruits and vegetables, such products may be dispensed from bins and packaged by the consumer himself.
However, it has also become clear that to insure the sterility of the product, and to prevent unauthorized tampering with the prooduct contained in any such bin or container, steps must be taken to prevent unauthorized personnel from tampering with the product contained in bulk bins. This again, is especially true in connection with food products or other products intended for consumption. One method of insuring sterility has been to package products in pre-determined weight formats, the products being pre-packaged by the vendor thereof. As indicated above, this is a typical method for packaging fruits and vegetables such as tomatoes, lettuce and the like, where the product is contained within a shell base, and a heat shrinkable plastic is wrapped over the product. The consumer would then be aware of any product tampering by noticing whether or not the heat shrinkable plastic overlay has been torn or otherwise tampered with. The difficulty with that packaging format is that the consumer is not given any latitude of choice in terms of the quantity of product to be purchased. In other words, if a consumer desires to purchase a certain amount of given product in a weight other than what has been pre-packaged, the consumer must either purchase an amount less than he desires, or an amount greater than what he desires, depending on the exact amounts or weights of product that have been pre-packaged by the vendor.
Furthermore, it will be appreciated that the pre-packaging of a product in individualized containers, when performed by the vendor, requires not only specialized equipment, but also increases the labor associated with the packaging of the product. Hence, additional clerks or other personnel are required in order to weigh and package the product, attend to the heat shrinking of the plastic overlay, and then placing the product out for display in appropriate display counters. As is now known especially in the food industry, in order to maintain minimal price increases in the price of food, labor and packaging costs must be reduced in order to maintain food prices at reasonable levels. Hence, if retail establishments which seek to vend food products from bulk containers are to be reestablished in the market place, a secure dispensing system is required. The difficulty now facing those enterprises is the matter of providing limited access sealed barrier containers which permit limited access thereto by the consumer while permitting the metered dispensing of any desired quantity of food, and simultaneously maintaining absolute sterility and the prevention of product tampering.
There has been disclosed one format of a sealed barrier container in my co-pending application Ser. No. 06/616,916 entitled Sealed Barrier Container pursuant to which a sealed bin is provided, access to which is provided through a pair of openings provided in the container which are sealed by means of a flexible pouch barrier which thereby permits the consumer to insert their hands against the outer surface of the flexible barrier, but due to the flexibility of the barrier, permits the operator to grasp product from the bin, and to deliver the same to an exit chute. The system described therein also provides an exit chute to which an individual receptacle such as a bag or the like may be affixed such that product which is grasped by the consumer via the flexible barrier material may be delivered to the exit chute and travel into the individualized receptacle located at the terminal end of the exit chute.
The present application is intended as an improvement over the structure as disclosed in the aforementioned pending application in that it attempts to eliminate the problem of potential access by an unauthorized personnel to product contained within the sealed barrier container. As indicated previously, the original concept contemplated that a flexible barrier material would be utilized to seal the contents of the container from the consumer, the consumer simply placing their hands onto the external surface of the flexible barrier and due to the flexibility thereof, permit the consumer to grasp any desired amount of product from the bin for delivery to the exit chute. However, it was deemed advisable to develop a more refined sealed container which permits a greater ease of use while simultaneously avoiding any contact as between the consumer and the internal confines of the container. It is therefore deemed desirable to develop a container which eliminates the necessity for the consumer to place their hands inside of the container in order to grasp a metered amount of product therein, and to deliver the same to an exit chute. Hence, the present invention provides a sealed barrier container wherein the consumer or operator is required to manipulate scoop means located within the container, from external control sources such that access to the interior confines of the sealed container is completely eliminated.